STELLA!!!

A famed movie moment, Brando screaming “Stella!” at the top of his lungs, but despite my film degree, in this case we’re talking about a pit bull and a rescue facilitated by Rasta’s via Pin-Ups for Pit Bulls on Facebook.  Everyday there are posts and stories on the web and news about Pit Bulls.  Unfortunately the press is often negative and web posts are frequently pleas to save another pit from a kill-shelter. 

One of our co-founders, Chandon Banning, made rescuing pit bulls a cause in her early twenties when she began rescuing them with a friend in L.A., and this effort continues today.  One thing Rasta’s does is share the posts of organizations like Pin-Ups for Pit Bulls in efforts to find homes for the neglected, abused, abandoned, misunderstood, or just lost.  More often then not these canines are pit bulls and Stella was one of them. 

Stella!
Photo by Chandon Banning

After years of being used as a breeder, Ms. Stella was discovered wandering the streets of La Puente, known gang territory, and ended up at the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter in southern California.  One look into Stella’s huge eyes and Chandon made this girl a priority and went to work on her L.A. friends from our home base in New Mexico to find Stella a home.  Stella’s stars aligned perfectly as a friend of Rasta’s and Chandon’s stepped to the plate to care and provide for this incredibly sweet girl. 

Not everyone can take on an older dog nor afford the expenses associated with rescues.  Not everyone has the space, time, or energy, but when the time is right, the dog right, and the rescuer right something magic happens.  In Stella’s case it worked out perfectly, a safe happy home and an adoring human, doting I might say, but for Stella after years of litter upon litter, the care and affection she receives is well deserved and makes right of many wrongs, at least for her.

Pit Bulls, once renowned as the nanny dog have been vilified for years, to the point of being banned in some communities.  They are over bread, abused, and used for the gambling sport of fighting, and unfortunately part of their nanny dog nature to which they were once predisposed seems lost.  This is the doing of humans, not the nature of the breed itself.  One of our missions at Rasta’s is to change this before the “nanny dog” disappears through the calculated indifference of careless persons. 

Stella is the quintessential embodiment of the nanny dog.  She trumpets her hellos and snuggles close with waging tail.  She expresses genuine gratitude for the life she has now.  No, she was never used for fighting, but there’s a damn good chance many of her pups were.  In many shelters pit bulls make up 30 to 50 percent of the population, approximately 1 million are euthanized each year, 200 per day in Los Angeles county alone (2008), then are those not counted, abandoned on the streets where they die in accidents or from starvation, thousands on the streets of Detroit alone, and then there is dog fighting, of course, it’s illegal so real stats are non-existent, thus we’ll leave that to estimates, based on the above figures, we can guess it’s awfully grim.

During a recent visit to Twelve’s elementary school I noted a bulletin board outside her classroom.  Apparently the children were learning about charts, graphs, and statistics.  They gathered information from their schoolmates to compile their statistics and from these created pie charts and bar graphs.  Not surprisingly among the expected inquiries of sixth graders, like favorite sports, subjects, colors, there were several dedicated to favorite or most popular breed of dog.  Again and again the top ranked, most wanted, most popular, coolest, and most owned— the pit bull.  I doubted the boys selected the pit because of its long ago nanny dog title and wondered why the girls too voted it top dog.  For the pit in America it is currently the top dog, most popular, most over bread, most abused, abandoned, fought, used, and talked about.  Sometimes it’s great to be top dog, other times, especially in the case of pits, it’s a terrible position to occupy.  One of Rasta’s missions is to change that.

For Stella we helped advocate that change via Pin-ups for Pit Bulls and a ready and willing rescuer, but for thousands more and generations to follow chances of a good, healthy, and happy life are just one in six-hundred.  Being top dog has placed the breed at the bottom of the barrel.  If you’re interested in having a pit bull or know someone who is, there is one in a shelter nearby in need of a rescue.  Paying for a pup only perpetuates what has become a nasty trade.  If you know of abuse or suspect it, report it.  If you suspect a dog fighting operation or know of one contact local authorities.  Change is advocated for through actions and it’s time to return the pit to its proper heritage— the nanny dog.  In doing so, so much else will change too and for the better.  The world can be made a better place and, in this case, it’s one dog at a time—Stella is happily down with that.

Rasta’s Rescue Ranch, Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico wishes to extend much appreciation to Pinups for Pit Bulls and all those who share their posts, Jana Savage at the Animal Advocate Alliance, who shared Stella’s story beautifully, the staff at the Baldwin Park Shelter who posted a video of Stella on youtube that truly captured the spirit of this great dog, and Kate who stepped to the plate, giving Stella a world of love, treats, and her forever home.